WYOMING — After his two pit bulls attacked and seriously injured a 60-year-old neighbor, a Wyoming man is to be charged with a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth on Thursday said he had authorized a warrant against Joseph Honorable, 28, for keeping a dangerous animal that caused serious injury.

Honorable also is expected to be charged as a habitual offender because he has several past felonies on his record, although the most recent is a breaking and entering charge from 2002 in Allegan County. The earlier felonies mean a conviction for the dog attack could increase any penalty to 15 years in prison.

All of Honorable’s earlier convictions were for breaking and entering.

The pit bulls escaped Honorable’s 31st Street SW garage in the early evening hours of April 5 and ran down the street. They began to approach 60-year-old William Ward and his sister, Joyce, as they were taking a garbage container to the street with their dog, Murphy.

Joyce Ward said she managed to frighten the dogs away and then took Murphy inside their home. She was on the phone with 911 to report the stray pit bulls when she saw they had returned and were lunging at her brother.